FINA’s Maglione Denies Blaming IOC For Soft Stance On Russians In Rio

The ‘he said, she said’ cycle revolving around swimming’s international governing body, FINA, and various other international sports organizations over the subject of doping is seemingly never-ending.

In the aftermath of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, three of the eight members of FINA’s Doping Control Review Board (DCRB) resigned, reportedly in response to FINA’s handling of the Russian doping situation at the Rio Olympics.

In the members’ letter of resignation to FINA President Julio Maglione, the board members reportedly pointed the finger at FINA for disregarding the DCRB’s recommendation in assessing each Russian swimmer’s Rio eligibility.

“We learned of FINA’s decisions regarding the eligibility of Russian competitors only by observing the Olympic competition…” it continued. “We were disappointed to note that our recommendations were not followed – and even more disappointed to receive no specific response to a subsequent written request for information regarding the reasons for FINA’s decision.”

Now more than two months removed from the Games, Maglione is denying an earlier claim he made that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) were the ones who actually blocked FINA’s attempt to set much stricter criteria for Russian swimmers’ eligibility in Rio.

According to Irish news source breakingnews.ie, Maglione reportedly emailed members of the FINA DCRB in the last week of the Games, explaining why he had not followed their guidance on deciding which Russian aquatic athletes should be allowed to compete.

“All of (the criteria) have been turned down by the decision-makers in the Russian athletes process, namely the IOC, (Court of Arbitration for Sport) and IOC review panel,” wrote Maglione in the email, according to breakingnews.ie.

Now that the words have been made public, however, Maglione is clarifying that his email’s contents to the DCRB were ‘taken out of context.’

To the email’s being released to the press association, Maglione now says, “This was part of a robust and ongoing internal process of discussion within FINA ahead of Rio 2016. We are fully satisfied with the final outcome of the three-step (eligibility) procedure set up by the IOC.”

Internally within FINA, the federation has replaced the 3 DCRB members with 3 new anti-doping experts: Dr. Peter Fricker from Australia, Dr. Michael Wilkinson of Canada and Dr. Daniel Eichner of the United States. The Chairman’s post is now designated to Spanish Professor Jordi Segura.